The Holy Quran to be presented in Ukrainian

In early March, "Osnovy" publishing house is going to present a Ukrainian translation of the Quran– the holy book of Muslims.

It took PhD of Ostroh Academy researcher and translator Mykhailo Yakubovich about 5 years to translate the Quran into Ukrainian, says the publisher.

“Quran is not only the main book of Islam. It is part of the world heritage, a work of art,a publication that should be in every home library. Ukraine is a multiethnic state. The Quran is a book that will help us better understand and know each other,” believes Dana Pavlychko, director of “Osnovy”.

It is known that the first attempt to translate the Quraninto old Ukrainian language was made in the seventeenth century. A polyglot from Lviv Alexander Abranchak-Lysenetskyy also tried to translate Quran into the modern Ukrainian language, but the text was never published.

It should be noted that MyhailoYakubovich also encountered many difficulties while working on the scripture of Muslims before the translation was officially approved by the committee at the center of King Fahd in Medina.

“In Ukraine there were no direct translation from Arabic, only some fragments, and even they weren’t good enough. I worked for a long time on Islamic religious vocabulary, picking up the notions, which, on the one hand would be familiar to Ukrainian readers, and on the other would convey the original meaning,” the translator says.

Quran, the holy book of Muslims, was written more than fourteen centuries ago. It consists of 114 suras (chapters) of various lengths, and all the suras are divided in turn into ayats (verses). According to various estimates, the Quran includes from 6204 to 6236 ayats and more than 320 thousand letters. It is a kind of set of laws that every Muslim observes.

“Traditionally, the pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, leaving the Holy Mecca, were presented the Quran in their own languageon behalf of the King. Earlier, the Muslims of Ukraine were handed a Russian translation. Now the Ukrainians can receive this gift in their mother tongue. Every nation, every country should have its own translation of sacred texts.It enriches not only culture, it enriches people,” believes Said Ismagilov, mufti of the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah “.

Previously,the translation was published online on King Fahd’s website from the print version of the Holy Quran, as reported by UNIAN.